This exploration of Zora Neale Hurston's life and work draws on newly discovered information and manuscripts that bring new dimensions of her writing to light. Zora Neale Hurston is best known for the landmark novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But no understanding of Hurston is complete without considering all the forms of her work, including her extraordinary work as a folklorist, in light of the newly discovered information, texts, and film footage. This volume caps a decade of resurgent popularity and critical interest in Hurston to offer a critical analysis of her work. Encompassing all of Hurston's writings, fiction, folklore manuscripts, drama, correspondence, it fully reaffirms the legacy of this writer, whom Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple) called "A Genius of the South." This work offers 20 critical essays covering the breadth of Hurston's writing, including her poetry, which up to now has received little attention. Essays throughout are informed by new research, previously unseen manuscripts, and even film clips of Hurston. The book also focuses on aspects of Hurston's life and work that remain controversial, including her stance on desegregation, her relationships with Charlotte Mason, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright, and the veracity of her autobiography, Dust Tracks On a Road

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

813/.52

Index

index present

LC call number

PS3515.U789

LC item number

Z745 2010

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

1Instances of the Work "The inside light" : new critical essays on Zora Neale Hurston